Birthday girl supports friend battling cancer

One Oxford girl is learning that you are never too young to give back.

Instead of focusing her birthday on herself, Molly Deal turned the focus to a friend battling a brain tumor.

Deal will celebrate her tenth birthday on Sunday at the Forest Hill Pool in Oxford. Her invitation reads no gifts; instead bring a $10 donation and 10 wishes for her friend Meghan.

"Number one for her to defeat cancer," said Molly. "Number two is for her family not to ever see her sick again. Number ten is to get season basketball tickets to Wolfpack home games since she's their biggest fan."

Meghan Bunn just wrapped up six weeks of chemo and radiation treatment following the removal of a brain tumor.

"Sometimes it's hard and sometimes it's not," said Meghan.

It's been hard on her family since the diagnosis in May.

"Thursday night prior to Mother's Day, Meghan had a softball game. She said she wasn't feeling well. She said she had a headache and was throwing up a bit," said Meghan's mom, Christy Bunn.

The following week came the news, the surgery and then weeks in the hospital and the treatment.

"She got sick last week and had to take a break because her body couldn't take any more," said Christy.

That's why support from friends like Molly is so important -- to give up her birthday gifts for donations and well wishes for Meghan.

"For other children to relate to Meghan in this way and to show how much they love her and support her, it was amazing," said Christy.

"I'm just so blessed to have friends like I do, that love me and care for me," said Meghan.

"She's just, just been my hero since she's been sick and been brave and just been awesome," said Molly.

Molly got the idea for the birthday donations and wishes from two other girls who have been profiled on ABC11. Now, they hope their story will help even more kids pay it forward on their next birthday.